Max Baucus: quorum call: the presiding officer: senator from montana. a senator: i ask that further proceedings of the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. balk. a senator: i ask

Max Baucus: that all time for morning business be yielded back. the presiding officer: the morning business is closed. under the previous order the senate will proceed on the motion to proceed on 2881. the clerk

Max Baucus: will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to consideration of h.r. 2881, an act to amend title 49, united states code, and so forth and for other burpses. the presiding officer: mr. president? --

Max Baucus: a senator: mr.? the presiding officer: the senator. a senator: we will proceed to the airport and airway trust fund known as the aviation trust fund. i urge my colleagues support getting to this bill. before

Max Baucus: getting to the specifics, however, i would like to give some perspective on the current aviation system. and i will start with a story of sir robert watn watt. robert watson watt was born in scott beland

Max Baucus: in 1892. he was a descendant of the steam engine pioneer james watt. robert was a student of science. the fascination for radio waves and how they might be used to transmit information. after finishing

Max Baucus: school, he got a job as a meteorologist at the oil aircraft factory not far from london. he worked on developing methods of using radio waves to help british airmen to locate and avoid thunderstorms.

Max Baucus: after years of work, the 1935 watson watt produce add report called the detection of aircraft by radio methods. the report suggested a new idea. the idea was that people could use short wave radio

Max Baucus: to detect not only bad weather, but also aircraft including bombers. watson watt's superiors testing his theory and it worked. they called his new gizmo radar. an rack anymore for radio detection and ranging.

Max Baucus: by the timeim that world war ii broke out in september of 1939, the british government installed radar along the english channel and north sea coasts. that gave the british advanced warning of

Max Baucus: hitler's bombing. the claimed historian said that he doubted that britain could have survived the second world war without watson watt's invention.| next, radar was ready for commercial application.

Max Baucus: all civil aviation needed for dramatic growth was a faster set of planes. that happened with the advent of the jet engine in the 1950's and 1960's. in 1952 what is now british air airways introduced the

Max Baucus: tahavalan tahavalan, a british jet that could fly as fast as 500 miles an hour. six years later the boeing 707 entered commercial service and pan am flew it from new york to pair paris in just under

Max Baucus: nine hours, about hour times -- excuse me, about one-fourth the time it took charles lindbergh to make that same flight in about 1927. in february 1969, the the world's first bide-bodied flight,

Max Baucus: the boeing 747. the 747 was 80% bigger than the largest jet of that time. the era of mass aviation was in full swing. as air travel furished, growing pains ensued. by the late 1960's, public concern

Max Baucus: over air traffic had spilled into the airlines. here is a news story "a thicket in in this the skies. when a pass passenger hops a plane, he discovers that mane does not live by one means of transportation

Max Baucus: that would limit flights at five major airports beginning june 1, air travelers might have another summer of frustrate ing delays." end quote. in short, the air transport system had grown beyond anyone's

Max Baucus: proposal to adopt a law in which use w ers of the aviation system paid for its up upkeep much the new law imposed taxes on tickets, fuel, cargo and the like, and the law established the aviation trust

Max Baucus: fund to provide a stable source of funding for our nation's aviation needs. despite some ups and downs over the last 38 years including a lapse of the trust fund in the early 19 80's, the system of funding

Max Baucus: air traffic has by and large been successful. the rates of the taxes have change ed and some, like those on air craft tires, has have been phase ed out. our system needs modernization to improve efficiency

Max Baucus: and safety safety. the 2008 trust fund born in the 1970's is fag for 1930's technology. that will change with passage of this bill. it will change with adoption of something called next gen. that

Max Baucus: brings us to the bill on which we'll vote this afternoon. the aviation trust fund, the trust fund finances the united states aviation system with about $12 billion per year in user-based taxes. the senate

Max Baucus: substitute amendment would provide about $800 million to the trust fund over the next three years and the bill would provide needed funds to modern modernize our aviation system. the senate substitute

Max Baucus: amendment is a compromise. it represents months of work on part of the finance committee and the commerce committee. its passage promises improvements in safety and efficiency. dethat movement

Max Baucus: -- improvement is next gen. nextgen is the federal aviation adminstration's plan to modern mo dernize the nation's nation's air traffic system. nextge gen would increase air traffic compasstained efficiency and

Max Baucus: improve safety and reduce the effect of air travel on the environment. generally speaking, nextgen involves the use of satellite- satellite-based technology, not radar but satellite-based technology. this includes

Max Baucus: items like automatic dependent surveillance broadcast, adsb, which allows aircraft to transmit altitude and speed to other airplanes. that would improve the efficiency and safety of air traffic. instead

Max Baucus: of use ing watson watt radar to tell where they are, planes equipped with s adsb get their exact position from satellites that would broadcast their flight and their number and speed and heading continuous

Max Baucus: continuously to ground controlled and other planes within 150 miles. this is a sea change in air traffic technology and we need to invest in itow. so how do we pay for nextgen. the finance committee passed

Max Baucus: a bill to pay for it this way. first we set the tax for general aviation jet fuel at 36 cents a gavment that's up from the 21.9 cents. this proposal was agreed to by the general aviation community

Max Baucus: and it'll raise about $240 million a year in additional funds for nextgen. note that this proposal does not affect those that fly planes with propellers. second we move to partially- own owned

Max Baucus: planes from the commercial actionation actionation regime to that of general aviation. without this change, their ability to fly and land in europe would be hampered. the union european union has

Max Baucus: strict rules about which airports flights can sues. this would allow flights considered as general aviation, not commercial. the senate substitute amendment drops a proposed increase on the tax on international

Max Baucus: departures and arrivals. the finance committee bill proposed raising that rate currently at $15.240 -- by up to $1.55 each way. just over $3 round trip. we thought if someone had the wherewithal to

Max Baucus: travel overseas, the cost of a cup at starbucks was a fair price. given the state of commercial airline travel today, senator rockefeller and i agreed to drop the division. in the face of dramatically higher

Max Baucus: fuel prices, we agreed that this is not the time to raise extra funds. the package in the senate substitute amendment raises about $8 million over the next three years. more may be needed given the

Max Baucus: rate of technological change. we know that both the finance and commerce committees plan to modernize. since this is just a three-year authorization, we'll be back at it to make sure it is working the

Max Baucus: way it's intended. this bill is not just about aviation. the finance committee package also contains other critical infrastructure items, including a direly needed fix to the highway trust fund. the highway

Max Baucus: trust fund will run a deficit in 2009 unless congress acts to repair it. in a time when our surface transportation suffers as much as, if not more, than our air transport system, it is imperative that

Max Baucus: congress act to restore needed moneys to the highway trust fund. we head need to finance construction for the repair of our nation's roads and bridges. taxes on gasoline and. mr. enzi: sill for heavy

Max Baucus: trucks finance the highway trust fund. the highway trust fund is sensitive to changes in the use of these items. as americans drive less and as vehicle fuel efficiency increase increases, the highway

Max Baucus: trust fund's balance has taken a significant hit. . a highway trust fund deficit is projected for 2009 and projections are expected for 20 2010 and beyond. as we get nearer to the next highway bill,

Max Baucus: therefore, it is important that we at least make the highway trust fund whole going into 2009. the senate substitute amendment would do that and i urge my colleagues to support t we'll have a vigorous

Max Baucus: debate this week week. before that debate begins in earnest, i want to thank my colleagues, especially senators rockefeller and inouye, for their willingness to seek common ground and i think the senate

Max Baucus: substitute amendment is a good one. so let us help to bring air travel from robert watson watt's idea into the 21st century. let adopt nextgen to improve safety and efficiency in the skies and